Having a quiet night was something rare in those days, those terrible and dark days that seemed to never end. Far away from the friends who were, so to speak, their family, James and Lily Potter lived on constant alert afraid to receive a Patronus with the news of death of one of their friends; a week ago Lily had received a patron from Sirius, saying that one of her best friends Marlenne Mckinnon and her family had been murdered by Death Eaters. That news had left Lily devastated; she had wept copiously, and despite telling her husband that she was well, she hadn't yet overcome the loss. No matter how much James said that it was not their fault, Lily believed that the Death Eaters went after her friend in hope that over torture she'd reveal where they were hiding. Lily still cried when her husband was not around.

Sitting in the living room watching his son completely entertained by the multicolored smoke he drew out of his wand, James Potter thought about where and how his best friends could be: Wormtail was hiding in a hut, that only Sirius and Dumbledore knew the location of, they had made him the Secret-Keeper so he had to hide like them. James would have made Sirius the faithful one, but his friend convinced him that it wasn't safe, that choosing him would be too obvious, and James had to agree. Padfoot were like a brother to him; from the first day at Hogwarts, they became inseparable, and everyone knew that. Then he suggested Monny, but the other didn't accept it since he suspected that Remus might be the spy Voldemort had put between them, and that was enough for James to explode. He had been anxious and cranky for days, standing there and hiding while people took risks for him and his family... it made him feel worthless, and now they tell him that his friend was a spy? A traitor? That was unacceptable! Moony was, after his Lily, the best person he had ever known. Even with his furry little problem, Remus was and always would be undeniably good! But no matter how much James argued, they didn't allow him to make Moony the Secret-Keeper, which made him even more annoyed. Suspect of a friend? A best friend? Never ever! He'd die, but he'd never distrust him or any other Marauder.

Who worried him the most was Sirius. He knew his friend knew how to take care of himself, but on the other hand, Siruis was impatient and impulsive, traces that the two shared, but James had Lily to keep him quiet and in control. Sirius was, like he loved to say, a free spirit (he had Remus, but the war messed up their already troubled relationship). This is associated with the fact that he hadn't heard anything from him since his Patronus that breaked the news of Marlenne's death and the one telling about Regulus death and Remus vanishment was a red flag. Sirius silence was driving him crazy.

Harry clapped his hands and let out a delicious laugh as his father's smokes took the form of a wolf, a dog, and a mouse, making James wake up from his daydreams. All the afflictions that plagued him disappeared every time he saw his son laughing. It was all for him to keep him safe. James didn't understand why Voldemort wanted to kill him. For Merlin sake, he was just a baby! He remembered it like it was yesterday , Dumbledore came to the house, that had once been of his parents and now was his and Lily's, bringing the news that the Dark Lord wanted little Harry dead. Lily had asked why, with tears running down her face as she held her belly, already in the ninth month of pregnancy, as if with that gesture, she could protect the baby growing in her womb. Dumbledore had said that a prophecy had been made about a boy born at the end of the seventh month, the son of wizards who faced Voldemort three times and who would have a power the Dark Lord didn't know. Dumbledore didn't know how, but Voldemort learned about the prophecy and was coming after them. Shocked and confused, but mostly concerned about the safety of their son, they agreed to leave the house and go to another, hidden and protected by the Order.

Enjoying that quiet night, the Potters had no idea what was going to happen. They didn't know that Wormtail, the friend they chose to be the keeper, left the hiding place to meet his Master and told him the precise location of the boy.

I'm not doing anything wrong, thought Wormtail, the Dark Lord only wants the boy, if Prongs stay out of the way nothing will happen to him, the same I cannot say about Lily, she is a mudblood and Master hates Mudbloods. Maybe Prongs will join us, he's strong and powerful, he'd know the right choice, he still had time. But deep inside that wasn't what Wormtail wanted, he had always lived in shadow of his friends, the least popular, least important, but now it was different, he was the powerful, the important one, he'd give the Dark Lord what he most wanted, something that none of the other Death Eaters could give. Now, he just needed to be careful and wait until his Master victory... I'm the smartest now.

As Wormtail walked towards his minute of glory, Remus was suffering at the hands of werewolves trying bravely to bring them to the right side. Dumbledore had trusted that mission to him and he couldn't, wouldn't disappoint him, no Dumbledore who changed his life and gave him the possibility of making real friends, friends for whom he would die for. The fact that he had to leave without saying a word was killing Remus; there were no secrets between the Marauders, but the war had making them a thing. Sirius had been suspecting him (the side looks, the sharp answers, no wanting Remus company...), they were barely in speaking terms which was just perfect, living with someone that you love but you can't trust, just perfect.

One more, just one more day, and I'll be home and will make things better with Siruis... Everything will be okay, thought Remus while he took his place at the pack meeting.

Sirius was hunting his dear and crazy cousin Bellatrix Lestrange. The damn woman had tortured Frank and Alice Longbottom until their minds broke beyond repairs – this he hadn't told Prongs and Lily, he couldn't, not yet; they were already too overwhelmed. He would find his cousin, for Frank and Alice, but mainly for Marlenne, Sirius knew that it had been that crazy bitch who had killed her. During a duel of the Order against Voldemort and the Death Eaters Marlenne had subjugated Bellatrix and with the pride of a wounded Death Eater (or a wounded Black which was potentially worse), Bellatrix had gone to Marlenne's house and killed her, not only her, but her whole family. Finding and killing his cousin would be a good and welcome distraction; they are losing the war, his stupid brother got himself killed, and Remus... He would not think about Remus; it was too painful. He had one mission in hand and would focus on that.

Enjoy your last few moments, Sirius thought, because I'm going to kill you!

Meanwhile, at Godric's Hollows, a gate was open with a little noise, and a hooded man got closer to the Potter's residence. The Fidelius Charm had been undone, and the Dark Lord was only a few steps away from ending the only threat to his power.It was ridiculous how that foolish couple trusted their "friends." Long ago, they should know that they could only trust themselves.

Voldemort had broken the Fidelius Charm, and the Potters didn't notice. From the window, he could see the man sitting on the couch entertaining the boy. The boy. Voldemort still didn't believe that that little boy who knew nothing of magic, who didn't understand anything, could defeat him, but he couldn't risk it. That damn old man had made a wild move hiding the child and if he did it so was because the boy had or would have a power that he, Voldemort, didn't possesd and that was unacceptable.No one could and never would be greater than him. Him, Voldemort, who had gone further than any wizard had ever had the courage to go! He could have sent some of his faithful followers to kill the boy, but that was something he'd pleasurable to do himself.Without Wormtail, none of this would be possible; he had to admit. He wanted the others, the werewolf or the Black, but both were honored and too loyal to switch sides, so he attacked the group's weak link. And it didn't take much to make Wormtail one of his, a threat, a promise of power and greatness, and then Voldemort had his spy.

He could reward him for his job, Voldemort thought, but he wouldn't do it. Wormtail was a weak link in his small group of friends, and he didn't want to have a weak link in his own. I'll give him a minute of triumph and then death. The little mouse would have the same end as his friends were about to have.

Reaching the doorway, he drew his wand out of his robes, gave a slight nod, and the door exploded from the hinges.

At the sound of her son's laughter, Lily placed her wand on the table and went into the living room. Arriving there, she met her husband, making colored smoke come out of his wand, making the boy laugh.

"I told you to make him sleep, James," she said with her hands on her hips, "not to play, it's late!" And then she had to control herself not to laugh at Harry's face of indignation when his father had stopped the smokes.

"It's not my fault if he doesn't sleep when he's with me, Lily."

Lily approached James and opened her arms. Little Harry threw himself at them and began to play with his mother's curls. James stood up, leaving his wand on the couch, stretched, laid a kiss on the top of his son's head, and one on Lily's lips. He was going to say something but was interrupted by a loud explosion.James's heart had stopped, he knew who was and what he wanted, and he desperately wanted to be wrong. He ran to the entrance and saw him. James turned to his wife and shouted:

"Lily, take Harry and go! It's him! Go! Run! I'll hold him off!" And almost immediately he realized how stupid he had been. Hold him without a wand? How could he be so naive, so careless? But the logical thoughts had abandoned him, he was only thinking of keeping his Lily and son alive.

Stop me without a wand! What a foolish boy, bravely foolish... Voldemort laughed before launching the curse. "Avada Kedrava!"

The green light filled the cramped hallway, the power of the curse threw the stroller against the wall, made the stair baluster shine like lighting and James Potter fell like a marionette whose strings were cut.

Voldemort heard the woman scream on the first floor. He expected the girl to have good sense, if she had anything bad would happen to her. Passing through the lifeless body of James Potter, Voldemort stopped close to the boy's face, turned him with his feet, and saw lifeless brownish eyes, staring into the void. The frozen expression on that face was no fear only disbelief. Such a handsome wizard, so gifted, died like a damn mudblood.

Lily didn't want to leave James, he was everything to her, the love of her life but she had to save Harry, she wouldn't let that monster kill him. She looked at James before running away, and he was looking back. The stare didn't last for seven seconds, but in his eyes, she saw all the love he had for her since their fifth year at Hogwarts and she knew he also saw the love she felt in hers. They fought so hard to be together… To be honest, James had fought for her while she struggled with what she felt for him. Until she grew tired of fighting, she realized that he had matured, that he was no longer that arrogant, overbearing brat for whom she harbored a latent rage. She wanted to have him forever, but their forever seemed too short.

This isn't fair, Lily thought as she scrambled up the stairs, half blinded by tears, pressing Harry to her chest. When she was on the last step of the stairs she heard a loud crash along with the glow of green light that was reflected on the walls around her, and she could not help the cry of horror and pain that came from her lips.

No, no, no, please, no James!

Her legs hesitated, but she didn't stop. She knocked over some boxes as she passed them, trying to delay him even if for a short time. It was useless, she knew, but she was desperate and couldn't reason... James was dead and she didn't know what to do, she had left her wand in the kitchen and couldn't get it. She was lost.

She entered Harry's bedroom, closed the door, and pushed the stroller out the front door and a few boxes as well, Harry still pressed to her chest.Seconds later the door was broken open and now she stared into big, red, and ophidian eyes.She dropped Harry in the cradle and stood in front of him with her arms open protecting him with her own body, with her own life.

"Not Harry, not Harry, please not Harry!" She didn't know if that monster knew what mercy was, but she had to try.

"Step aside, you silly girl… step aside now."

"Not Harry, please no, take me, kill me instead—""

This is my last warning—"

"Not Harry! Please… have mercy… have mercy… Not Harry! Not Harry! Please— I'll do anything—"

"Step aside. Step aside, girl!"

She'd have begged more, but Voldemort had already raised his wand, pointing it directly at her chest.The green light flashed around the room and she dropped like her husband, one last tear running down her face. The once bright green eyes of Lily Potter would never shed more tears.

The child still hadn't cried. He was standing, clutching the bars of the cradle. He looked up into the intruder's face with a kind of bright interest, perhaps thinking that it was his father who hid beneath the cloak, making more pretty lights, and his mother would pop up any moment, laughing—Voldemort pointed the wand very carefully into the boy's face: he wanted to see it happen, the destruction of that inexplicable danger. The child began to cry; it wasn't James. Voldemort didn't like crying, he had never been able to stomach the small ones whining in the orphanage."

Avada Kedavra!"

And then the pain! Everything he felt was the purest, most agonizing pain.

He had murdered powerful wizards and witches, and he became the most powerful and feared wizard in the world, succumbing while trying to kill that boy! What kind of magic had that mudblood used to protect him? What magic would be powerful enough to make his spell turn against him?He didn't have an answer, and he was not interested in finding out, at least not now, he needed to hide, he couldn't stand there among the wreckage of the ruined house where the boy was screaming. He needed to go far... Far away...

In the minutes that followed all that was heard in the Potter's residence was Harry's strident cry, trapped inside the cradle. He was crying because he was tired of the game, he wanted his parents. Mother was lying on the floor, but why didn't she stand up? Why didn't she catch him on his lap like she always did when he started to cry? Why was she so quiet? Where was his father? The little boy was crying more and more, but his mother wouldn't get up and his father wouldn't come... They would never come again.

Severus arrived at the Potter's residence not long after Voldemort fled. The right side of the top floor was destroyed, and the sight of it made Severus heartache... Lily!James Potter's body was in the entrance hall. He had never liked him.

Not feeling so arrogantly confident now right Potter? Severus thought bitterly, he didn't care for him, he was only concerned about Lily but he knew she was dead too, otherwise, the boy wouldn't be screaming... The Boy! How could he be alive? Voldemort wouldn't spare him, he'd been there specially to kill him, maybe the wretch of Potter had managed to stop Voldemort before he killed him, and maybe Lily was still alive.

He went up the stairs and the closer he got to the last door in the hallway, the more clearly he heard the boy crying. The room was destroyed, it was all wreckage and dust, but the cradle was intact. There were pieces of the ceiling wood above it, and inside it, the boy cried, now lower. Perhaps tired of screaming, his little body trembled, sobbing coming out from the small lips, from the little eyes came thick tears and they were fixed on something a little further on the ground. Severus followed the boy's gaze and from where he was, he saw Lily's vibrant red hair.

His legs betrayed him and he fell on the ground, dragged himself to where Lily's limp body was, cleaned the debris from her, pulled her into her lap, and cried as he had never cried in his life. The person he had loved the most in life was dead and it was all his fault.He didn't know how long he'd stay there, sitting in the baby's room cradling Lily's lifeless body in his arms.

At some point, he heard a resonant "no" coming downstairs. He laid Lily's body carefully on the floor, kissed the top of her head, looked at her one last time, and turned away feeling hollow. With Lily's death, his heart died as well.

Hagrid's crying was louder than Harry's, he couldn't even see clearly because of the tears. He'd seen James grow up, went to his marriage, and now was seeing him dead. His body was alone in the hall, which meant that Lily and little Harry's bodies were upstairs.

Dumbledore had sent him to see if any of them had survived but Hagrid doubted it and such was his surprise when he reached the wrecked room and saw little Harry on the cradle with one hand clutching one of the bars and the other stretched forward, opening and closing as if calling for someone... and looking where Harry was looking he saw Lily's body and a new wave of crying began.Still crying, Hagrid removed the beams that held Harry in his cradle and took him in his arms.

The little boy's eyes never glanced away from his mother, his little body still trembling with every sob he let loose and Hagrid, not knowing what to do, started to give him soft and gentle taps in the back to calm him. Slowly the sobs stopped and Harry fell asleep.

Sirius was flying fast, something bad had happened. He was dueling with Rodolphus, Bellatrix's husband when he had just disappeared. A Death Eater would never give up the fight, especially when they believed he was the Secret Keeper unless... if they had discovered who was the guardian and this thought frightened him.

He had arrived at the local where Wormtail was supposed to be hiding but he wasn't there. The hiding place had no signs of fighting or break-in...

"Ah, Peter, your dumb rat! What did you do?" Sirius thought aloud as he got on his motorcycle and threw himself into the sky again. Peter was probably with Dumbledore who besides him was the only one who knew where the hiding place was. He would go to Dumbledore later, first, he needed to check on James and Lily.

Seeing the doorway of his best friend's house hanging from the hinges and part of the second floor destroyed Sirius understood what had happened. Peter had betrayed them.He dropped the flying motorbike on the grass and ran.Though his eyes showed him Sirius refused to believe what has in front of him. He threw himself on the floor and kneeled to shake off James's shoulders.

"Come on, you can't do this! You're my brother, you can't die, come back, Prongs!" His efforts were futile, his best friend wouldn't come back and it was all his fault, and that was probably what hurt him the most. He laid his head on his friend's chest and cried.

"Sirius?" Hagrid said in a choked voice of crying so hard, a crying that he still couldn't contain, as for the scene he was seeing.

"What's that in your arms, Hagrid?" Sirius stared at the small package Hagrid carried. "Is it Harry?" He is... "

"No! He is alive!" the guard replied, minimally recomposing himself. "He survived Sirius, I don't know how, but he survived!"

"Lily?" Sirius asked hopelessly and Hagrid nodded. Swallowing the lament that threatened to come to his lips Sirius reached out his arms toward the baby. "Give me Harry, Hagrid, I'll take care of him."

"No, Dumbledore gave me express orders to take the boy to his uncles."

"I'm his godfather, I'll take care of him."

"Dumbledore told me to take him and I'm going to take him!"

"It's all right," Sirius said giving up arguing. He wanted to take care of his godson but now he had something he wanted and had to do. "Go on my bike then, you'll get there faster."

"On your motorcycle?" Hagrid asked, his eyes glittering with excitement. "Are you sure?".

"Yeah, I won't need it anymore." Hagrid nodded in agreement. As he passed the Marauder he squeezed his shoulder to make a caress but left him with a sore shoulder.

Sirius went upstairs, took Lily's body out of the wreckage, and set her down beside her husband.

"I'm so sorry, Ginger," he said, placing a kiss on his friend's forehead. "I'll make him regret being born, he's going to pay for it!"

Peter was slippery, and slipped through Sirius's fingers several times until he was cornered on a little busy avenue.The treacherous rat trembled from head to toe, pleading eyes looking at a furious and determined Sirius. Peter looked around for a way out but he had nowhere to run.

"Lily and James, Sirius! How could you?" Cried Peter sobbing and putting on his face an expression of revulsion.

What this coward is trying to do, Sirius thoughtIs he thinking that half a dozen Muggles would intimidate him and stop him from killing him? He didn't know him.Peter pulled out his wand, and to this Sirius was already prepared but what he did next made Sirius stop. Peter didn't point his wand at Sirius but rather at the Muggles that were in the street and the next second the street exploded, by the accounts of Sirius, eight people died.

"PLEASE, SIRIUS, DON'T DO THIS!" Yelled Wormtail and pulling a dagger from his robes cut off his finger, screamed in pain, looked at Sirius one last time with a victorious smile playing in the corner of his mouth, raised his mutilated hand, waved, turned into a rat, and amid dust and debris disappeared.

Sirius looked at Peter's finger in the blood-stained clothes and laughed, at first only a tiny laugh but then the laughter turned into a shout. And that's how the Ministry officials found him. Among the bodies of several Muggles bursting into laughter. He laughed at his ignorance about his friend, laughed for having suspected Remus, laughed because he had surrendered the safety of his brother to the traitor... Laugh out of hate.

Hours before Dumbledore had left Harry at Dursleys door where he'd grown up without knowing love or affection, without knowing that he was very loved for his parents that died to save him.

Remus had returned ready to fix things with Sirius but instead, he went to his friend's funeral. The news of Lily's and James's death had hit him like a Stupefying Charm leaving him stunned. He refused to believe that Sirius had betrayed James and killed Peter... that didn't make any sense! They were friends, were family!

The little cemetery at Godric's Hollow was packed with wizards. Few of them were friends most of them witches who came to pay homage to the Boy-Who-Lived parents and some were curious. Dumbledore were the only one who volunteered to speak, made a brief and touching speech embraced Remus and left with Prof. McGonagall, Hagrid, and a few others. After Dumbledore's departure, the others also left until only remained him.

Alone, Remus Lupin collapsed. In a single night, he had lost everything, friends... no, family, because the Marauders were his family, the only one that he had after his parents death. He was alone again, as it had been when he was a child. He felt lost, he didn't know where to go or what to do. He stayed there, kneeling in front of the gravestone of James and Lily for hours, until he stood up, fluttered his wand and conjured a wreath, placed it between the graves of his friends, said goodbye for the last time and left.He returned to the apartment that he shared with Sirius, picked up his belongings, and disappeared into the world. No one could tell where he went or what he did only hearing from him again after he received an invitation from Dumbledore to teach at Hogwarts and this story you already know.

Mischief Managed!